Occupy Oakland General Assembly debates violent “black bloc” tactics

Hundreds of people attended Occupy Oakland's general assembly meeting Wednesday evening. Electricity in the plaza had been turned off by the city, so the meeting continued with the aid of a generator and candles.

Amid rumors circulating of a police raid later that night, several hundred people packed the steps and floor of Frank Ogawa Plaza on Wednesday evening for an Occupy Oakland General Assembly meeting. During the four-hour meeting, protesters voted to march in solidarity with Egyptian activists this Saturday and considered whether to endorse or disavow violent “black bloc” tactics within the ongoing protests.

About 700 people were present, many holding candles in paper cups that illuminated the amphitheater. While the solidarity march was approved with over 90 percent of the vote, debates over so-called black bloc tactics were prolonged and heated.

“Violence and vandalism only leads to one thing,” one middle-aged protester with long hair said from the stage during the “pro and con” portion of the meeting. “They escalate, we escalate, and this thing does not end well.”

“We can’t start developing ways to police people’s behavior,” said another man from the stage.

Widely associated with anarchist protesters, black bloc is a tactic originating in Germany and popularized in the US in which protesters wear all black clothing, hoods and masks to conceal their faces, making themselves difficult to distinguish by police and invoking a sense of solidarity among participants.

During the General Strike on Nov. 2—which culminated in a march to the Port of Oakland—some protesters, dressed in black and wearing masks, vandalized businesses, especially banks, in downtown Oakland and nearby neighborhoods.

“We urge protesters using black bloc tactics to use appropriate restraint and discipline,” said the man who introduced the proposal. “If our intent is to get to know the community, breaking windows is probably not a good way to do that.”

Read the entire story by Alex Park, Megan Molteni, and Byrhonda Lyons at Oakland North.